Smarter Robots for Smarter World in Covid-19 Era
Published on : Wednesday 12-08-2020
Tanvi Verma elaborates upon how the Covid-19 pandemic has changed the perception of robots with their deployment in the cause of crisis management.
Before Covid-19 painted a grim scenario, most people were having some degree of discomfort and confusion about robots and artificial intelligence (AI), mainly due to lack of awareness. Most likely, their beliefs have been shaped by the depiction of the technology in science fiction, and the mind-sets they have developed so far by the inappropriate and disconcerting information, influenced by legitimate concern. It is acknowledged that some of AI’s business applications were indeed leading the reinforcement of biases, and infringements on data privacy.
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world, everything came to a standstill for an indefinite period of time (almost 3 months). Due to this, people thought of more such scenarios in which they could not work and production got hampered. From then onwards, every company started to think of the changed circumstances with concern, and of development of robots, in more progressive light. Necessity indeed gives birth to invention.
As we know, robots already existed in the industrial environment. However, those worries on data privacy and infringement appear to be set aside since the onset of the pandemic. Many AI- infused technologies have been developed and introduced in operations to deal with production and factory automation related problems to mitigate the spread of the virus. We all have seen an acceleration of the use of robotics or AI to do the jobs of humans who have been allowed o stay at home and work from there as the situation demanded, or those who have been redeployed within the workplace to maintain a reduced workforce, i.e., 33% or 50% at a time in the organisation, as part of emergency or essential services. They bridge the gap between market and products and save lives and factories. There are various robots now introduced or developed, which was not the case earlier, for helping and assisting mankind in this hour of crisis.
Labour-replacing robots are taking over tasks like floor cleaning in hospitals, grocery stores, Metro stations, railway stations, office spaces, etc. Disinfectant robots are developed which spray liquid disinfectant to not only clean and disinfect but to counteract the effects of infection causing pathogens and emerging threats in healthcare sector and public places (outdoor and indoor spaces). The ease of using mobile robots with spray disinfectant utility depends on the effectiveness, speed, safety, duration of environment cleaning in one go and processes that reduce the risk of infection.
For preventing disease in hospitals and airports, robot-controlled non-contact ultraviolet (UV) surface disinfection is used. Since Covid-19 spreads not only from person to person via close contact respiratory droplet transfers but also via contaminated surfaces, we cannot keep the surface wet every time by throwing liquid sprays. So, the UV disinfectant robots have been developed, which can help keep the atmosphere of closed spaces clean and germicide free. These are used where the healthcare professionals cannot go multiple times but the spaces require sanitisation every half an hour.
Mobile delivery robots are used widely which can supply food, supplements and medicines to the isolated rooms/wards in hotels and hospitals. Autonomous mobile robots are doing really great by not only providing the requirements like food deliveries, sanitisation and degermification but also deliveries at the right place with an accuracy of ±15 mm in x-y plane.
Intelligent thermometry systems using drones is employed during this time. Drones while flying capture the data of the person walking in the streets/roads by taking a snapshot as well as measure the temperature through contactless thermal sensing. These drones helped the police officers and government officials for maintaining law and order in the contaminated zones. Roads/colonies in contaminated zones require proper controlling and monitoring of the people, having at least one metre of distance while travelling. If the drones found some ambiguity in distance, they produce sound and create alarm for following rules. Drones also supply essential services to the hospitals in the contaminated zones so that they safeguard the patients by supply of medicines and blood wherever needed in this tough time.
Chatbots have been developed during this time to help the person who needs medical assistance at home. Using AI, these chatbots not only listen to the patients at home but also prescribe the best medicines based on data analysis of symptoms of diseases and their medicines for recovery. Some labs also have expertise in wheeled tele-presence robots, which includes a manipulator arm that allows virtual face-to-face patient assessment and enable healthcare staff to perform diagnostic testing remotely such as measuring the patient’s temperature and blood pressure measurement remotely. So, a quick deploying of tele-health technology is developed in the current pandemic to allow for screening of patients while healthcare staff can remain at a safe distance.
Development of humanoid robots is at peak because they assist people in their homes while making coffee and helping them to release their stress while sitting with humanoid robots. These robots have psychological and emotional quotient, which is developed after years of research in the domain of AI. Humanoid robots also helped in serving food to the patients in the hospitals and they will talk to the patients in isolation wards. They help them in connecting with the world. Mobile, wheeled and humanoid robots use LIDAR (light detection and ranging) and SLAM (simultaneous localisation and mapping) technologies to detect objects in their path to avoid any collisions.
Industrial robots have magnified their capacities by developing more accuracy, they use big data and IoT for performing several tasks remotely and effectively. These robots cannot run and be deployed without the involvement of AI, machine learning and deep learning. However, data analysis and mining plays a vital role in managing and analysing data and configuration of these extreme intelligent products during the pandemic.
Always remember ‘Crisis not only helps us to see the vision of future but also empowers the roadmap of brighter and smarter future’. This is clearly seed in factory automation in small-scale and large scale industries during in present times. The brain of the ‘robot’ creates the vision of many startups. We all easily get to know that if we all collaboratively work, the adaptability rate of allowing newer mission and vision of using robotics is will increase manifold. As a result, the quality of robots and work accomplished by robots are increased effectively and tremendously. The reason behind the success of smarter robots is the unprecedented time and their unexpected requirements. If we continue to grow in this direction, we not only achieve the targets of business but also enable the pursuit of the mission of creating a smarter world during and post-Covid times.
Tanvi Verma, a self-proclaimed Enthusiastic Roboticist, is Product Design Engineer at The Hitech Robotic Systemz Ltd, 18 months into the job. Prior to this, she has worked as Project Trainee on Remote Handling and Robotics at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, trying to develop the method for parametric estimation and calibration. Tanvi pursued B.Tech (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering from Uttar Pradesh Technical University and M.Tech (Gold Medallist) in Robotics and Automation from Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women, New Delhi.
